Fuel management

What is fleet fuel management?

Fuel management means measuring what each vehicle actually consumes, checking refuels and spotting losses: siphoning, fake refuels, detours and engines left idling. Diesel makes up 30 to 40% of a fleet’s operating costs, and it is often the least controlled line, because a monthly invoice does not say where the liters went. With Tracky, fuel data travels from the vehicle to the platform, through the CAN bus or a sensor in the tank, and is matched against the trips. Abnormal level drops trigger a real-time alert, and every vehicle gets its consumption per kilometer, comparable from one driver to the next. Equipped fleets cut their fuel use by up to 18% in the first year.

Where do the fuel savings come from?

From several places at once, rarely from just one. Theft often stops as soon as the team knows the tanks are measured. Detours and private trips show up in the history. Idling, which can add 5 to 10% to fuel use in town, becomes a number per vehicle. Driving matters too: according to the U.S. Department of Energy, aggressive driving raises fuel consumption by 10 to 40% in stop-and-go traffic.

Public studies point the same way: Verizon Connect measured average fuel savings of 16% among fleets using GPS tracking. Our guide to reducing fleet fuel consumption goes through the seven levers, in the order to tackle them.

Do you need a sensor in the tank?

Not always. On cars and small vans, reading the CAN bus or the original gauge gives a good enough consumption trend. On trucks, a fuel level sensor becomes the only way to detect siphoning with the engine off and to check the real volume of each refuel. The full setup, with the sensor and the CAN bus cross-checked, is described on the fuel sensor + CAN bus page.